The world's end, in Norse mythology / FRI 12-26-25 / Casting need / Old coin with a picture of Generalissimo Franco / Origin story family in DC Comics / Cracked wheat used in tabbouleh / How a supervillain might brag / Food that can be prepared de canasta / Royal Australian Air Force insignia / Nation dubbed the "cradle of mankind"

Constructor: Andrew Spooner

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: MOA (39A: Down Under bird that scientists are working to "de-extinct") —

Moa (order Dinornithiformes) are an extinct group of flightless birds formerly endemic to New Zealand. During the Late Pleistocene-Holocene, there were nine species, in six genera. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about 3.6 metres (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kilograms (510 lb); the smallest, the bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis), was about the size of a turkey. Estimates of the moa population when Polynesians settled New Zealand circa 1300 range from 58,000 to 2.5 million.

Moa are traditionally placed in the ratite group. Genetic studies have found that their closest relatives are the flighted South American tinamous, once considered a sister group to ratites. The nine species of moa were the only wingless birds, lacking even vestigial wings, which all other ratites have. They were the largest terrestrial animals and dominant herbivores in New Zealand's forest, shrubland, and subalpine ecosystems until the arrival of the Māori, and were hunted only by Haast's eagle. Moa extinction occurred within 100 years of human settlement of New Zealand, primarily because of overhunting. [...] The creature has frequently been mentioned as a potential candidate for revival by cloning. Its iconic status, coupled with the facts that it only became extinct a few hundred years ago and that substantial quantities of moa remains exist, mean that it is often listed alongside such creatures as the dodo as leading candidates for de-extinction. Preliminary work involving the extraction of DNA has been undertaken by Japanese geneticist Ankoh Yasuyuki Shirota.

Interest in the moa's potential for revival was further stirred in mid-2014 when New Zealand Member of Parliament Trevor Mallard suggested that bringing back some smaller species of moa within 50 years was a viable idea. The idea was ridiculed by many, but gained support from some natural history experts.

In July 2025, American biotechnology Colossal Biosciences announced early phases of plans to "revive" the South Island giant moa by adding moa genes to a related species in collaboration with the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre with funding from Peter Jackson.

• • •

The puzzle seems fine, nothing really ugly about it. It just felt boring. Also, irksome. Three superhero clues, two Albus Dumbledores, and a "de-extincted" MOA in a pear tree. OK, just one ALBUS Dumbledore today, but one yesterday as well, so it sure feels like two. And RAGNAROK isn't technically clued via the Marvel movie title Thor: RAGNAROK, but that's certainly the only way I know that term (12D: The world's end, in Norse mythology). The idea of "de-extincting" animals is horrifying to me. If things are dead, they're dead, let them be dead. Nothing good is going to come from humans trying to raise the dead. We can't even be bothered to do the basic work of preserving the life that does exist on this planet. It's not like Things Are Better Now. We're extinctifying species more than ever. The hubris and lack of foresight here is astonishing. The ways those MOA will be exploited, ugh. Did no one read Tusks of Extinction? God knows I love a MOA. There's a picture of me around here with a museum recreation of one (aha, found it—see above). But that clue, ick. See also the clue on PESETA (54A: Old coin with a picture of Generalissimo Franco). The only time I want to see "Generalissimo Franco" in my puzzle is never. On the off chance you're not familiar with him, here you go:

His government's use of forced labour, concentration camps and executions after the war led to at least 30,000 deaths, with some estimates exceeding 200,000. Combined with wartime killings, this brings the death toll of the White Terror to between 100,000 and 350,000 or more. During World War II, he maintained Spanish neutrality, but supported the Axis powers, damaging the country's international reputation. (wikipedia)

In short, f*** that guy, and f*** this puzzle for the completely needless insertion of a murderous fascist dictator into my Friday puzzle. Gonna have to go replenish my holiday cheer supply later. Maybe have pie for breakfast, I dunno. But "Generalissimo Franco," yeesh, not on my Boxing Day bingo card, dislike. Dislike. I am smashing the Dislike button.

[USHERING]

The grid shape today means that there's not a lot of space for marquee fill. You get the two gridspanners, and they're nice, but the rest is workmanlike, at best. Nothing wrong with any of the 8s in the corners, but there's nothing particularly remarkable about them either. I think the NW is probably the most interesting. Makes me think of a really lazy bank robber, a dilly-dallying hold-up man who can't be bothered to run for it. A SLOWPOKE with a MONEYBAG. That mental image is amusing to me. And then you've got the KANGAROO hopping out of that corner. It's fun. The rest of the grid was less fun, more ho-hum. I guess there's some visual interest in having the answer TIGHTROPE WALKER streeeeeetch from one end of the grid to the other—though at 15 letters, that's always what a TIGHTROPE WALKER's gonna do (at least in a standard-sized puzzle). I guess the puzzle gets some credit for making the answer an Across and not a Down. Preserves the appearance of an actual tightrope. That's something, I suppose.

This one started out with what felt like might be a proper level of Friday difficulty, but after I got out of the top third of the grid, the puzzle offered no more resistance. I think there was some hesitation with EPITOMES and the -IFT twins (RIFT + GIFT) (46D: Big break + 44A: Facility), but otherwise, every answer went right in, not much thought required. Up top, though, I slipped and slid around a little before gaining traction. Couldn't even get started in the NW until I'd done the most basic solving trick—start with the suffix you believe a clue requires. In this case, the "-LY" in SMUGLY (1D: How a supervillain might brag). From there I got YTD and then LOSE IT and ON HOLD followed soon after. I totally forgot LILYs were toxic to cats. I also thought "untended plots" were HOLEY (been reading a lot this holiday season, so I was thinking novels, not gardens). I thought the [Broad band?] was ORE (not OBI). I thought the BOUT was a MEET (10D: Contest). The biggest snag up top, though, was the final vowel in BULGUR (18A: Cracked wheat used in tabbouleh). "U" was my ... third choice. Definitely started with BULGAR ... that's something, isn't it? Yes. A noun meaning "a Bulgarian." Also, an alt-spelling of BULGUR. When the "A" didn't pan out, I switched to "E," which ... yeah, now I see that's more "one who bulges" than wheat type. Eventually, TRUE LOVE showed me the way. Thank you, TRUE LOVE.

Bullets:

• 25A: A cold one is unexpected (and usually unappreciated) (CALL) — true enough. But if you're me, all CALLs are unappreciated. When we used to have a landline and the phone would ring, I'd resent it. Why, why would you make this machine ring? In my house? Things were so peaceful. Nowadays, half my (cell) phone CALLs are spam (or so my phone tells me). The other half are doctors or dentists or what have you. I text. Makes me realize, I never did like the phone. An exhausting contraption. For me, the phone is an intrusive, energy-depleting machine. Maybe this is why I'm so bad about calling my parents. Or anyone. These people who talk on the phone in public (!?), talk on the phone while they're out walking (!?!?!?!) ... I will never understand.
• 29A: Food that can be prepared de canasta (TACOS) — I don't know this method of preparation. I just like that TACOS is the answer to 29-Across, and then 30-Across starts [___ Tuesday] (30A: ___ Tuesday (end of the pre-Lenten season) (SHROVE)). I was like, "ooh, more TACOS!?" But no. 
• 47A: It might be marked with an X (PORNO) — first, probably marked with more "X"s than that. Second, nothing about this clue signals abbrev. or shortening or slang, so I call foul. I think I'd call it PORN or a PORN MOVIE before I'd call it a PORNO. PORN sounds normal, whereas PORNO sounds like something that SLEAZO from yesterday likes to watch.
• 53A: Life partner? (CELLMATE) — this is cleverish. If you're doing "Life" (in prison), you might have a CELLMATE. I thought the answer was going to be something like TIMES or LIMB.

• 34D: Great illustrations (EPITOMES) — easy to misinterpret both "Great" and "illustrations." Puts you in mind of large paintings (or frescoes or murals). But today, it's just perfectly apt ("great") examples ("illustrations") of ... whatever.
• 43A: Origin story family in DC Comics (KENTS) — Superman's adoptive parents are the KENTS.
• 49D: Casting need (DIE) — this was kinda hard. We typically "throw" or "roll" dice (when playing, say, a TABLETOP game). I only encounter the verb "cast" in the context of the phrase "the DIE is cast" (alea iacta est), which is what Caesar is alleged to have said when he crossed the Rubicon. "The phrase is often used to indicate events that have passed a point of no return" (wikipedia). [I’m being told this clue probably refers to DIE-casting]

Time for the Boxing Day edition of 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲! Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you.

A couple of memorial photos up front. Here's Cody, who was beamed up to heaven in a heart-shaped bubble last month. What a sweet face...

[Thanks, Martha!]

And here's Lola, who died last year at age 13. As you can see, Lola was an expert shredder of presents (or plush toys, or scraps of paper, whatever you got, total pro)

[Thanks, Mimi!]

Here's Pico realizing he's in way over his head. "Why did I volunteer to be in charge of lights again!?!"

[Thanks, Marilyn!]

Lupo, on the other hand, is hiding. He has learned his lesson. "No way they're putting me on light-hanging duty again, man. No way!"

"Bah, hiding is boring, let's eat the tree!"

[Thanks, Jill!]

Zack just wants you to take it away. Away. Not amused. Not interested

[Thanks, Christian!]

And finally today, we have Odin, seen here saving Christmas once again. Sometimes you have to crush a few villagers if you wanna save Christmas. It happens. The point is: Christmas, saved. Once again. By Odin. RIP ten villagers. 

[Thanks, Luke!]

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Fashion designer Lange / THU 12-25-25 / Transcript ruiners / Old dagger carried by Scottish Highlanders / Right-eous path? / Footwear for a bride, perhaps / Vodka-and-pineapple juice cocktail popularized on "Sex and the City" / Letter after three consecutive rhyming letters / Ballon ___ (soccer star's award) / "___ the Limit" (posthumous hit for the Notorious B.I.G.)

Constructor: Sam Ezersky

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "... LAUGHING all the way!" (51A: What's seen "all the way" through this puzzle?) — the puzzle depicts the first verse of "Jingle Bells," with lyrics appearing in a series of fill-in-the-blank clues; the final part of the verse, "... LAUGHING all the way!" is depicted visually in the grid by a series of laugh sounds found in circled squares embedded inside longer Across answers—the "laughs" stretch "all the way" from the NW to the SE corner of the grid:

The lyrics!:

• Dashing through the SNOW ... (4A)
• In a ONE-HORSE open sleigh ... (21A)
• O'er the fields WE GO ... (7D)
• LAUGHING all the way (51A)

The laughs!:

• LOLLYGAG (16A: Dawdle)
• BY THE HORNS (26A: One way to take a bull)
• RICHARD HARRIS (35A: First portrayer of Albus Dumbledore, the final live-action role in his long film career)
• WHITE HEELS (42A: Footwear for a bride, perhaps)
• BROUHAHA (57A: Ado)

Word of the Day: LIZ Lange (61A: Fashion designer Lange) — 

Liz Lange is an American fashion designer and businessperson. She is the creative director and CEO of Figue, and the founder of Liz Lange Maternity, which introduced form-fitting designer pregnancy wear in 1998. Lange has been called a pioneer in the apparel industry. // Lange has two children, Gus and Alice, and lives in Manhattan and in East Hampton, at the Grey Gardens estate. The setting of the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, it was purchased by Lange in 2017.

She is the niece of businessman Saul Steinberg. (wikipedia)

• • •

This is an A+ theme concept. The theme execution, as well as the fill, kept trying to dampen my good time, but it's Christmas, goddammit! I choose joy! I choose to focus on that one moment when the puzzle's predicted "AHA" response (1A: Response to discovering the theme of a crossword) actually came true! I had drifted across the top of the grid ... noticed the first laugh syllable ... noticed the second "Jingle Bells" lyric ... and then while filling out the NE corner, it suddenly hit me, and I said, out loud, to no one, "Oh! LAUGHING all the way!" It happened here, just as I filled in UTILE (thus distracting me from the ugliness that is UTILE):

I knew right then the puzzle was going to "laugh" all the way across the grid, and if I'd stopped right there, right at the moment of true theme revelation, I think I would've told you "this is the best puzzle I've solved in many months." To have the puzzle literally sing the song, and then to drop little laughs in there like breadcrumbs ... all the way across the grid ... it's ingenious. It's also dense as hell—between the lyric answers and the laugh answers, there are nine themers, with density reaching really intense levels in the upper part of the grid (where SNOW crosses WE GO crosses LOLLYGAG abuts ONE-HORSE. Almost every Down up there has to cross two themers. SUPERSTATE has to cross three (3). HEADWRITER has to cross four (4!). That is nuts. Themers are fixed answers. Once you set them, they don't move, and the denser they are, the harder it is to build a clean grid around them, which may be why it feels kinda janky here and there. 

First of all, some of the theme answers are not, let's say, the strongest as stand-alone answers go. BY THE HORNS is slightly awkward, as are most prepositional phrases. WHITE HEELS are, I'm sure, a thing, but ... I dunno, felt pretty improvised, as puzzle answers go (WHITE HEELS, unshockingly, is a debut). But my biggest problem with the theme execution was the placement of "WE GO"—it's both misoriented and out of order. The first part of the lyric is up top, then the next part. is a few lines down ... so the next part should keep this pattern going—"WE GO" should appear as an Across answer (like the other lyric answers) somewhere between ONE-HORSE and LAUGHING. You have laughs drifting down the grid, you should have the song drifting down the grid—and you mostly do! It's just this one silly Down answer that's gotten things all loused up. Make "WE GO" Across and put it between ONE-HORSE and LAUGHING and you're perfect. Hell, if it's too hard to make "WE GO" fit in any of those 4-letter Across spaces, then just use "O'ER" as your fill-in-the-blank word. Doesn't get much more crosswordy than "O'ER!" This is the part "O'ER" was born to play, put him in! Anything but yanking "WE GO" out of sequence and wrenching it into Down position. This is the problem with having such a great idea—botch the execution even a little, and it's jarring. 

The fill in general was on the weak side. Not a Deadhead so LESH looked like a typo, honestly (this is LESH's fifth NYTXW appearance, first in eight years). UTAHN will always be my demonym nemesis (demonymesis!). Ugly as sin. SIREE should never be out without his YES companion. Window brands (PELLA) do not make for happy holiday grids. THEEU will never look good in the grid. Nor will CIT (ouch). LOL at G'BYE (another debut). That's ... inventive. Desperately inventive. See also "LET HIM." Just making up new answers out here today, Merry Christmas! As for EFFS (63A: Transcript ruiners) ... why isn't that just ELMS or something simple and nice like that? The worst answer of the day for me, though, was SLEAZO. What is with the "O," who says that? You'd call someone a SLEAZE (47D: Slimeball). A "slimeball" is a SLEAZE. SLEAZO sounds like a derelict clown. Or, like, Bingo's mortal enemy. "There was a clown who hunted dogs and SLEAZO was his name-o..." Nine times out of ten, you ask someone to fill in the missing letter and make a noun out of SLEAZ-, they're putting in an "E." 'Cause that's the term. SLEAZO, yeesh. Yeesho. This is a long and bitter way of saying I had to track down a mistake today, and SLEAZE was its name (-o). 

Bullets:

• 31A: Old dagger carried by Scottish Highlanders (DIRK) — crosswordese of yore! Also the name of an actor I love, DIRK Bogarde. He hasn't been a clue since 1998. Probably the right call, but I'd love to see him come striding into the grid on a Friday or Saturday. He's fabulous.

• 40A: Letter after three consecutive rhyming letters (IOTA) — those three letters ... I dunno, Dancer Prancer Shmancer? Surely it's three of the -ETAs. Which ones? I don't care.
• 22D: Someone who might ask "Mother, may I?" (NUN) — so the "Mother" is the Mother Superior in a convent.
• 11D: Vodka-and-pineapple juice cocktail popularized on "Sex and the City" (FLIRTINI) — I'd sooner die than waste my one cocktail a day on this abomination, buuuuuut I'm always going to cheer for cocktails in the grid, even in their more repugnant incarnations. 
• 41A: Right-eous path? (EAST) — ending on a high note. This clue is insane. It's doing a funny little dance just for your amusement. Just trying to liven up an otherwise forgettable answer. And, you know what, little clue? Good job. ("Right" is EAST ... on a map)

A few 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 now before I go sit in the dark with my coffee and watch the sun rise (my favorite time of day). Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you.

Bella is hard to see in this picture but she needs you to know that she is there, being good (on the pillow, bottom left)

[Thanks, Martha!]

Bowie is here to make sure none of the kids f*** with Santa anymore. "Just sit down, state your toy wish, and then move along. Hands to yourself. Santa's beard is not a toy for your grubby hands, Timmy. Beat it!"

[Thanks, Barbara!]

Another in the "hostage photo" genre. Poor Finnegan. Finnegan wants to begin again, preferably without the costume. Less costume, more treats!

[Thanks, Lana!]

Billy Eckstine here has quite the life. Used to be a wild cat, now he's got fancy Italian digs (seriously, he lives in Italy, this is Italy) and lounges on the couch and enjoys the Christmas lights while his human caretakers bring him bonbons, I assume.

[Thanks, Tara!]

Rikki failed out of Stealthy Commando Snow Dog school because he kept smiling and his pink tongue would give his position away.  So now he just chases balls and enjoys the snow like a good dog.

[Thanks, Beverly!]

Finally, there's Belle, who may or may not have committed a Christmas murder. Did Santa really need Comet? Guess we'll find out!

[Thanks, Lori!]

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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